|
Which is the most reliable brand . . .
of hard disk drive?
Over many years of experience within the data storage equipment industry, there is one particular question more repeatedly asked than most of the other common ones. Questions like "What's the most reliable brand of disk drive?", or "What's the best brand of hard drive money can buy?", along with the permutation "Aren't '-you-name-the-brand-' hard drives just about the worst, most unreliable make of hard drive?" are often put to experts in the field, and represent an entire class of inquiry used for probing into this one issue.
The short answer to this question is the same as the shortest possible English language answer to any question: "No." Okay, strictly speaking, that doesn't make much sense - but it does convey the right idea. Asking which brand of hard drives are the most reliable is something like asking the same thing about cars made by Audi, BMW and Mercedes. There really is no simple informative answer.
The more complicated answer (but also more informative) from an expert in the field is that every single maker of hard disk drives has manufactured certain models that are in every way best of class, and superior to their competition. And it's also true that every single one of them has put out a model or two at least, that would make a lemon tree cower with embarrassment. A truth that should be owned up to by every computer user who uses that computer to store data having value to them is that no matter what brand of hard drive is installed, sooner or later it will fail and block your access to that data. The most appropriate means to deal with this reality is to have backup copies of all valuable data.
In the 1980's, there were many competing manufacturers, well over three dozen that included such brand names® as Micropolis, Rodime, Lapine, Hewlett Packard, Tandon, CDC, Microscience, Shugart, Conner, CMI, Kyocera, Miniscribe - most of which hardly anyone now, just two decades later, can even remember if indeed they have ever even heard of them. All of the currently existing manufacturers (see list below) were also in the business back in those same early days, and the fact that they are still with us now is strong testimony to each vendor's fierce commitment to data storage technology and the building of a high quality product.
Hard drive manufacturers Quantum and IBM, historically two of the greatest names® in the business, only since the dawn of the new millenium now fail to qualify for the elite group below. And more recently Maxtor too, another historic and venerable name in disk drive technology, has come under the specter of industry consolidation; in May of 2006 they were acquired by Seagate Technology (it was Maxtor who acquired the Quantum disk drive business in April of 2001). In the following list are the still extant makers of hard disk drives that have not only survived into the twenty-first century, but who today are still creating indispensable rotating memory hard disk drive data storage products for our computers and other digital entertainment devices:
® All trademarks are property of their respective owners.
Call Now for a FREE Consultation . . .
|
